Review | Firewalker by Josephine Angelini

So what was so painful? The romance. What I wanted to happen and what actually happened couldn’t have been possibly been any more opposite. This broke my heart. (Days after finishing this book, I’m still obsessing about this.) 

Early in the story, secrets crept into this relationship. Also, both Lily and Rowan had someone from their pasts hovering in the background. [Highlight the middle of this paragraph for spoilers related to the romance: There is no real love triangle in this installment, but this book set it up nicely for a potential triangle showdown in the finale. THIS BROKE MY HEART. Lily and Rowan seemed determined for a portion of the book to make their relationship work, but each knew about the other’s past love hovering around in the background and neither did anything to shut this down. Also, the secrets were just a mess that ended with some bad, bad behavior. The romance is up in the air at the end of the book.] All of this made the romance between Lily and Rowan a little tense, in my opinion, and I felt throughout the entire book like I was waiting for something bad to happen. 


After finishing Firewalker, I feel like I’m treading water while I’m waiting for the third book to come and rescue me with answers to a bunch of questions and unresolved issues. If that sounds dramatic, it’s because that’s how I feel after wanting this book so much and then the romance and then – 


– a cliffhanger ending. Cliffhanger city. 


The final book has the potential to bring either the joy or the pain – I have no clue! What I do know is: Lily is more powerful than I originally realized, I don’t trust Lillian’s reasons for anything even though she insists they are good (because, whoa), and the book ended with some very adventurous, action-filled scenes. I’m excited to see what will happen with some of the characters and I want to see more of Juliet (she’s awesome!) and I’m really, really nervous about what will go down with this romance. I have FEELINGS that I can’t really share here because NO SPOILING but my word, I don’t even know what to say about what I even WANT to happen in the last installment. (I put quite a bit of emphasis in that sentence-don’t let that get lost on you.) My last impressions of some of these characters is not good; I do not like the bad behavior that some have shown throughout the course of this book. Still, I’ll be reading the finale to see how everything ends. 


I’M NERVOUS ALREADY. 


I recommend Firewalker by Josephine Angelini to readers that enjoy great world-building and fantasy, and to those that enjoy stories about witches.